Men's Basketball

Rally Nets Home Opener

Fullerton, Calif. - Perry Webster and Jer'Vaughn Johnson each scored 17 points and three other Titans were in double figures Saturday night as Cal State Fullerton rallied to win its home opener, 85-75, over Cal State Bakersfield.

The Titans (2-4) overcame a 14-point first-half deficit by outrebounding the Roadrunners (3-3), 43-20, and by making 33 of 37 free throws. Orane Chin had 16 points and 8 rebounds, Devon Peltier scored 14 points and Orlando Brown had 11 points and 9 rebounds to tie Johnson for game honors.

Donavan Bragg scored 21 points to lead CSUB, which also got 15 points from Alex Johnson and 14 from Stephon Carter.

Fullerton beat Bakersfield for the 12th consecutive time dating to 1973 and ran its home non-conference winning streak to 11 in a row and won its 30th of the last 31.

"Our offense was pretty good the whole game but the difference was the defense in the second half," said CSF Coach Bob Burton. "And we made our free throws."

Bakersfield shot 53 percent from the floor in the first half including 5 of 8 from the 3-point line and took its biggest lead at 46-32 with 1:59 to go on a Carter jumper. But Fullerton scored the final 6 points of the half to make it 46-38 and opened the second half with an 11-3 surge to tie at 49 on two Johnson free throws. Bakersfield pulled out to leads as large as 5 points before the Titans caught up at 63-63 at 8:57 and took the lead for good on Chin's 3-pointer at 8:14 that made it 66-63. Fullerton's biggest lead was 11 points as it made 23 of 25 second-half free throws.

The Roadrunners cooled off in the second half, shooting only 30 percent and making only 2 of 7 reys. Fullerton committed only 4 turnovers in the second half and making 10 in the first half.

The teams play a rematch in Bakersfield on Jan. 25. Fullerton's next game is at Montana on Tuesday night.